>> you heard a lot of words and no answer. you need their vote for the dream act but you don't. wilson: there are versions of it. heinrich: i have voted for it and would do it again and that is the leadership we need on immigration issues in washington. >> moderator: we are at the end of the program and we get a minute for each candidate to provide closing statement. martin heinrich, you have the mike. heinrich: my priorities are new mexico's priorities, protecting social security and medicare, tax cuts for the middle-class, keeping promises to veterans and making college more affordable for everyone. heather wilson has all the wrong priorities. you voted for the wall street bailout and the george bush tax cuts that exploded our deficit and now she wants even more tax breaks for millionaires. she supports 0 program called pat cap and balance that would require deep cuts to social

security and medicare. i will never balance the budget on the backs of our seniors. medicare and social security argentine went. they're a promise we made to our seniors and a promise i intend to keep. i come home every weekend to meet with new mexicans, old job fairs, raise my family. i am always fought for the things that matter most to the people of the state and if you send me to the united states senate i will continue that fight and be honored to have your support. >> moderator: representative will some. it could 21 i see an opportunity society opposite safety net. i support social security and medicare and the safety net programs my own family depended on when i was a child and my father was killed unexpectedly. those unexpected events are what the safety net programs are for. congressman martin heinrich has plundered the four years in congress. we have 30,000 fewer jobs in new

mexico today than we had four years ago. holding back on hiring they have no idea what their taxes the going to be next year. they had community banks that are not lending to small business because they don't know what regulations on banking mean and feel they get the bank every time they rolled to a small business. we need to keep taxes low, regulations clear. we need and all of the above energy strategy to create american jobs and need to avoid the sequester that will be devastating to our nation's defense and to new mexico's economy and i ask your support and your vote. >> moderator: i think both candidates for participating in tonight's debate. it was informative, and lining and the more informed choice thanks to candid and his son pointed questions. and i thank kfox for

participation in the debate and sundays will make the endorsement for u.s. senate. in addition the story that is independent of the endorsement will publish on page one that profiles the race. and don't forget to vote. thank you. [applause] >> a few minutes ago i called president bush and congratulated him on his victory. and i know i speak for all of you and all the american people when i say that he will be our president and we will work with him as the nation faces major challenges the head and we must work together. >> i just received a telephone

call from governor dukakis. [choosers]] i want you to know he was most gracious. his call was personal and genuinely friendly and it was in the great tradition of american politics. >> this weekend on american history tv, 20 years of presidential victory and concessions beaches. watch at 7:00 eastern and pacific. >> why would the assassin group, john wilkes booth team want to assassinate william henry seward? >> this has been the subject of some debate. some scholars think that booth realize in the event of the debt of both the president and vice president and secretary of state task with organizing an election.

i don't think so. . wasn't a lawyer. un actor. a shakespearean actor who knew julius caesar backwards and forwards. he viewed himself as brutus, doing the right thing and lincoln as caesar the tyrant. steward is a little like mark antony, the coat tyrant. he wanted to be sure that the coach tyrant was eliminated as well as the tyrant. >> more about abraham lincoln's team of rivals, william seward with walter stock, sunday night at 8:00 on c-span's q&a. >> since the university president rodney erickson speaks about the future of his university and answers questions about the ongoing child sex abuse investigation and formal charges against former university president graham spaniard. this is about an hour.

>> it is a picture-perfect college town nestled amid the majestic hills of central pennsylvania and enormously popular university, it boasts the largest alumni association in the country. things were anything but happy when our guest rodney erickson assumed the presidency of penn state last november. the school was reeling from a side -- child sex abuse scandal involving penn state assistant football coach gerry sandusky. coverage of the scandal was nonstop. the school's reviewed football coach joe paterno had just been fired. president graham spaniard forced to step down. both men and others at penn state were accused of covering up the scandal to protect and state's reputation. this one of the mess that and in an erickson inherited an. that mess is slowly being cleaned up. jerry sandusky is in jail probably the rest of his life.

the football program has been sanctioned by the n.c.a.a. but had a new and popular coach, bill o'brien who brought stability to the program. the university was fined $60 million and is still likely on the hook for millions more dollars as victims of sandusky file civil suits against the school. a geography professor by trade dr. erikson has been at penn state university since 1977. he has been chairman of the geography department and served as executive vice president and provost of the university. dr. erickson graduated university of minnesota and obtained his ph.d. in geography from the university of washington. a native of wisconsin, dr. erickson is the seventeenth president of penn state and plans to step down in 2014. no doubt much of his time in the next two years will be dealing with fallout from the scandal

and restoring in state's reputation. please join me in welcoming rodney erickson to the press club. [applause] >> good afternoon. thank you for your kind introduction as well as your flexibility, rescheduling this event given the weather challenges of the week. i am honored to be here and appreciate your interest in kent state and hiring education. a special welcome to all the penn staters here along with those of you covering a educational issues. we need your continued engagement. thank you for joining us and bringing along the penn state cookies. according to google news there are 45,000 stories about penn state and jerry sandusky. you have written them, you have read them and i imagine most of you have formed an opinion about

and state in our actions over the last year. but beyond the headlines there's another reality, one that exists for penn state's 96,000 students, 44,000 full and part-time faculty and staff and over 550,000 living alumni. it is a world of teaching research and service. a world with an $800 million research program, hundreds of degrees offered, 24 campuses, online world campus, academic health center, law school, 157 years of tradition. it is also in world that has continued to face ongoing controversy surrounding jerry sandusky, our board of trustees, current and former administrators and me. the legal process continues to unfold as evidenced by the attorney general's further charges level yesterday. today i want to tell you about

my world, the realities of running an institution the size and scope of penn state while dealing with widely divergent perceptions. i want to share the wonderful law activities and accomplishments of our students and faculty and staff over this agonizing year. by any reasonable definition they are newsworthy stories but i understand you may not be willing to listen to them until we show you how this year has changed us. what have we learned about ourselves and what are we trying to do with that knowledge? i will speak candidly about how the last year has affected by in state and how the impact has gone beyond central pennsylvania to shape policies that colleges and universities across the nation? then i will share strategies for the years ahead. to begin, let me take you back to last year when penn state

received the repugnant news that a former assistant coach had molested young boys and in some instances on our campus. immediately as they did with all of you our thoughts turned to the victims of these horrific crimes and in the days that followed we saw the removal of the senior leaders of our university and athletic program including the popular president and iconic football coach. at the time i was serving as executive vice president provost of a position often call the best job in higher education. my retirement was within my sights. when the board of trustees asked me to serve as president i accepted knowing full well that the months ahead would explore uncharted territory for our university. many times i had been asked why did you say yes? the answer has never changed. i have devoted 35 years of my

professional life and state. my children attended penn state. i believe deeply in our mission and our ability to contribute to the greater good. i knew i needed to step up and serve. i also new penn state is a great university, a great university that will endure as it has always in short, will recover and will continue to advance teaching, research and service. in those early weeks i heard from penn state's many constituents through 5,000 e-mails and letters and hundreds of phone calls and personal contacts. people were shocked, upset, concerned, disappointed, and yet support of of the university. meanwhile comment as the story played out in the media, alumni circles and in every corner of our campuses voices that remained silent for many years

began to speak up. victims of child abuse wrote to my office. these individuals were abused by family members and acquaintancess. only 10% of sexual abuse is perpetrated by a stranger. they were part of the chilling estimates, in five girls and one in ten boys are sexually abused by the age of 18. the majority of those victims will never tell anyone even if they have been asked. the letters were powerful, expressing bottled up pain, shame and struggles these individuals have lived with over many years. for some this was the first time they had shared their story. another has ridden regularly and met with my top administrators to collaborate on ways to help victims of child sexual abuse. i found these stories heartbreaking but i also found hope in them. those who wrote were entrusting their stories to us and more

importantly they were looking to us to help tackle and in cities, hidden, epidemic issue. they still believe in our capabilities even as we wrestled with our own despair about what had happened. share issue became our issue and we resolved to move forward by using all that is right about penn state to take on this nationwide problem of child abuse and we resolved to do it by doing what we do best, that he's teaching, research and service. beyond that, we have something even more powerful. our student body. within the first days of the crisis it became clear that the students weren't going to wait for us to lead them. they were moving forward with unity and constructive energy that has been inspiring to all of us. here are two quick examples. by the end of the first week

student leaders organized a candlelight vigil on the old main lawn to show support for the victims of child sexual abuse. thousands of penn state students and community members joined in the stillness of a cold dark night to remind others at the core of the issue we faced were children who had been gravely harmed. the following week graduate students laura march and stuart shapiro helped mobilize the penn state community with the goal of raising awareness and funds for combating child abuse. working with the tight timeline right before the will nittany lions were to play the first football game in the aftermath of this tragedy lara and student organize the first annual blue lauch to represent the color of ribbons worn in support of child awareness. this was the second annual blew out. together they raised $126,000

for prevent child abuse pennsylvania and the pennsylvania coalition against rape. lara and stewart, please stand so we can recognize you. [applause] >> thank you. and state alumni have also shown their support, raising $550,000 for the country's largest anti sexual violence organization. those are just a few examples of many acts, large and small that were organized and carried out by penn state. what is more, students continue to respond to the crisis while doing the things penn state students have always loved to do, study and learn, participating clubs and activities, make friends, look forward to the future and cheer on 800 plus student athletes and

31 varsity sports including the football team whose performance on and off the field has made us proud. as administrators, we try to balance the need to move ahead with the need to reflect on and correct the underlying issues that brought us to the crisis in the first place. the trustees began by asking former fbi director louis free to lead an independent investigation which yielded 119 recommendations on how to enhance our internal policies and practices. we have already implemented one search of these recommendations and many more are nearing completion. we remain committed to this progress because we believe it is making us a better, stronger university. we are committed to the fight against child abuse. central to this effort is the

newly established center for the protection of children base that can state her she children's hospital and ongoing partnership with the pennsylvania coalition against rape. earlier this week, we completed the first in state national conference on child sexual abuse. this forum brought together leaders and experts from law enforcement, a pediatric medicine, research and education. we formed the penn state network for child protection and well-being comprised of 35 faculty members with interdisciplinary expertise. the aim is to accelerate the pace of discovery by linking research and practice and to build the network with additional researchers, practitioners and teachers. dr. susan mchale, director of the social science research institute and one of the corps organizers of the network is here with us today. can you please stand and be recognized? thank you. [applause]

>> we also made a pledge to educate our university community about ethics. it is one thing to know the rules, regulations and policies. it is another thing to create a culture where every employee wants to do the right thing the first time everytime. through training and awareness building efforts, we are trying to help people understand the how, when, where and why of reporting. i assure you can state takes this commitment very seriously. that is not a glib promised. to prove it we have stepped up our efforts and compliance. like most universities and state has dozens of compliance professionals. they are responsible for insuring research funds are appropriately used. they monitor our ncaa compliance, financial reporting, conformity to federal laws covering privacy rights and crime reporting and administer many more regulations related to the health, welfare and safety of those on campus including our

patients. what we discovered is this despite staffing there were gaps in the system and lacked central compliance office where these efforts can be coordinated. we have since hired the university's first full-time compliance coordinator to short and state's overall compliance with the cleary act. with this new position our goal is to not only ensure that penn state meets the requirements set forth by federal law and the u.s. department of education, but to become a leader in campus safety, security and compliance. another example of the athletic integrity agreement between the n.c.a.a. and penn state with oversight by senator george mitchell, this should put the question of athletic integrity to arrest even as we implement changes. there is a great deal that is right about athletics at penn state. student athletes graduate above

their peers nationwide. this year they earned 88% graduate success rate compared to 80% for all division one schools. the football team's rate is 91%. this level of achievement spans all africa--again at -- academic majors. african-american student athletes turned a record 90% rate which is 25 points higher than the national average. of the universities are closely watching and state's actions so they can strengthen their policies, mitigate risk at their institutions and make their campuses safer. from california to florida state have introduced the child abuse reporting, not only moral duty but the law. this is tremendous progress, policies tighten, governance and

institutions made safer. and work continues. that brings us to today on the brink of a 1-year anniversary, civil lawsuits, perjury trials and we can expect more fallout to come. over the last year we have learned much about ourselves. many cultures, values and visions. we are working through some difficult issues but the question remains where do we go from here? to penn state's core mission, teaching research and service. our bottom line is delivering outstanding education to students. students are the top priority. our students are our top priority. this year our journalism students capture the national championship and the william randolph hearst foundation's

journalism award program. top honors in the national eco car competition, the others racing to get their vehicle to the moon in the google and x prize competition. meteorology students won the national weather forecast challenge and notably this week more than 3400 penn state meteorology alumni were tracking hurricanes and the for the government, private industry, military, me and education. in addition this fall we welcome one of the largest and most academically accomplished classes in history after receiving a record 123,000 total applications for admission. the successes define who we are and where we are going. we need to support those students and faculty members because they depend on us. our alumni and people of the commonwealth of pennsylvania depend on us for educational

opportunities, economic development and competitiveness and our nation depends on us for groundbreaking research and training for the next generation of leaders, scientists, thinkers and teachers. allow me to put a few faces on the penn state community. will martin and hours, please stand. cat and will our student leaders working to fight the a in a bid -- cancer. the largest student from philanthropy in the world. since 1977, it has raised $89 million for the four diamonds fund at the hershey medical center. we brought along dvds of the documentary, the story of on for all of you. please pick up a copy on the way out. incredible story. thank you. [applause] dr. kathy bowlen, please stand.

kathy is a professor of agriculture and extension education, consumer issues. in addition to a full-time teaching and research agenda, she runs a volunteer service to help income eligible people get their taxes done for free. last year the program completed nearly 700 tax returns and saved the elderly working families and students at least $133,000. the program's total economic impact was nearly $1 million, thank you. [applause] finally i want to introduce dr. sande badin you and dr. paulson who are professes at the college of agricultural sciences. could you please stand? they're inspiring collaboration discovered what could be a promising treatment for leukemia. laboratory tests, the compound they developed targeted and killed leukemia stem cells without relapse.

bear team which includes undergraduate as well as graduate students is working to move this compound into clinical trials as soon as possible. thank you. [applause] these are and staters who are leading us into the future. they're the people i work for every day. they are the reason i am here today and just a few of the penn staters who will not allow anything to keep us changing the world for the better. i want to spend a few minutes looking ahead because we are facing a crisis of higher education. our young people from middle-class and working families, people like cats, will, lormac and stewart who for generations have depended on access to affordable community colleges at state universities. they are at risk of losing that access. throughout the nation state

governments are cutting back on the funding that helps keep tuition affordable and the threats -- cuts threaten the system of public higher education that began when abraham lincoln signed the moral land grant act 150 years ago. a report by the national science board released just last month found state support for public universities fell 20% between 2002, and 2010 and the shortfall has put public research universities in peril. the declining investment in universities has made this a lost decade for funding and worse it has happened when universities have increased enrollment by tree 20,000 students nationally. this caused many to begin to question the future of public higher education and the implications for society. this is not a chicken little warning.

as university president i am acutely aware we need to adapt to these economic realities. to be sure state legislatures and governors have tough choices. their ability to provide government service has decrease and the public's need for them has increased. we know the difficulty of asking already hard-pressed americans to pay higher taxes to subsidize public university tuition to enable lower and middle-income families to afford to send their children to college but we must address the current reality that our nation's public universities are charging tuition that even in -- increasingly out of their reach. without a doubt everyone in leadership at public universities can and must do a better job reducing costs and improving education. further belt-tightening must occur on university campuses everywhere. every member of the university

community shares their responsibility. we at penn state know this and we're turning over every stone to find savings and efficiencies while improving learning outcomes. this year we have the lowest tuition increase in 45 years. we have trimmed budgets, cut programs and consolidated functions but you can't do 20 first century science in labs left over from the days of sputnik or before. as the ceo -- on a corn has set of with said what is merely average we will remain merely average. our students and nation deserve better and we must do better if we intend to compete on the global economy. last year traveled to china and visited several universities. the national investment on these universities, their research facilities and higher in education is something to behold. over the last 30 years china has had 58fold increase spending on

education, health and social investments. according to a report from the center for american progress by 2003, china will have more than two hundred million college graduates which is more than the entire u.s. workforce. in five years india will be producing five times as many college graduates as the united states. these are the fact that drive the decisions we must make as we position penn state to succeed in the future. part of that strategic planning will require getting out and staying out in front of the information technology revolution which has been among the most significant drivers of educational change in the last 15 to 20 years. it has also been like a runaway train. one response to the higher education funding crisis has been increased appeals especially from legislators and business leaders for higher education to drastically

increase online education. the hope is that more students will receive college degrees after at less cost and research shows that done appropriately application of technologies can both improve learning outcomes and decrease costs of delivering that education but so far savings have proven imus sieve. nonetheless, massive open online courses are testing the market. dozens of universities including mit, harvard, princeton and stanford offer these classes from the headlines like college might never be the same. stay tuned, could be a wild ride. good ideas take time and research to explore. penn state operates a world campus with 12,000 students enrolled and dozens of full online programs.

our model has been -- in the coming your we prepared and state for the next generation of leadership. by 2013 the board of trustees, the search for the next president. it is incumbent on us to lay the groundwork to my successor, and look forward to an invigorating process with many outstanding candidates. and not only those that have come from the events of the past year but they came from the higher education lancelet tape. large public research university and yes university that continues to believe great academics and great athletics cannot only coexist but can be mutually reenforcing components of the university education. i hope you can better understand

why i am proud of the university, it is because of our students, faculty and staff and hundreds of thousands of penn state alumni and friends, difficulties are not over, and the best data still ahead. thank you for the opportunity to share these thoughts with you. [applause] >> the free report claims consider officials including graham span you were aware of and deliberately concealed jerry sandusky's abuse of children. worked alongside the former president for six years. the you believe he was aware of and concealed jerry sandusky's abuse of children? >> i am not going to comment because it is an ongoing

investigation, a subject of continuing litigation but obviously all of us at penn state have been deeply hurt, deeply moved by everything that has transpired, yesterday was no exception either. we have to trust the courts to would judicature these matters and allow legal process to run its course. >> the penn state board of trustees repeatedly said gary shields will get due process. why was president's tenure not given the same consideration? >> november of last year the board made leadership changes.

rationale for those changes president spaniard, had not fulfilled his leadership obligations in subsequent with the media, and primarily around the issues of not keeping the board and developments that occurred over a longer period of time. as well as making statements that are not in concert with the board's wishes. >> where are the penn state board of trust team needed for november 9, 2011, and why are they the only meeting minutes that have not been publicly released even after repeated requests and a legal requirement to do so. >> i wasn't there, i can't and

to that with completeness. there are no minutes taken at the meeting. >> what is the overlap in personnel between board members, employees and donors and penn state board of trustees, and why were conflict of interest not identified in a free report? >> we may be able to get you that information but i don't have it. i was never myself involved in any way with the second mile either in any of their fund raisers or official activities. i do not have a knowledge, working knowledge of who would have been back and forth with respect to the service of the university and the second mile. >> there are widely reported

contradictory location on the border trustees for the exact purpose of the lewis free investigation and subsequent report. can you investigate in detail how the scope of work was outlined for free and the real purpose of his investigation and report? >> he was given a broad mandate looking at the sandusky situation to try to discern what happened and what had gone wrong, and make recommendations on how the university could improve policies, practices and operations. as i indicated in my remarks judge free identified 100 recommendations. many of these were suggested by the 400 individuals that his

team interviewed over the course of several months. we have focused as an administration on putting as many of those recommendations and really the idea is to put the mall into place as quickly as possible. the board has responded quickly to the recommendations that has also taken a number of actions since last november including changing of the board leadership, completely revising the committee structure creating six committees that are responsive to the current functions and need them the university, tremendous amount of work that is going on. i have appointed three senior leaders to oversee the implementation of the recommendations of the report. we made tremendous progress, and

all the recommendations completed by the end of calendar 2013. >> follow-up question to the board, why was the november meeting an exception? >> i have no knowledge of that. >> have you asked? >> plenty of other people have asked but i was simply told commack i asked and was told -- >> did you ask why? >> i asked why. the actions that were taken, were the subject of the board meeting. i can't respond to questions i wasn't there or have information about. >> how do you address fears,

concerns of alumni that felt pen state giving in to the n.c.a.a. sanctions feeds into the storyline that penn state had a culture where football was put above all else. >> by accepting the n.c.a.a. consent decree was the most difficult question, the most difficult decision to make in 40 years, i am laid out the reasons in public why i made those decisions, clearly the alternative of which was multiple years of the death penalty. i simply felt was too devastating for the university, the community, and i thought that even though the sanctions that were imposed were unprecedented and crippling in

many ways, it was the better alternative and also allow us to move forward as the university so i made that decision and stand by that decision. >> did you personally find the retirement package for jerry sandusky that gave him access to the penn state campus? >> no, i did not. the only role i played there was as provost. the president award chooses not to award status, in 1999 when jerry sandusky was awarded a emeritus status, nothing more than a title. and the concerns that i expressed about that in the e-mail in an e-mail produced in a free report was only concerned with the president that might search of someone at the assistant professor rain who

would be given emeritus status but i played no role in any of the kinds of matters related to what jerry sandusky was entitled to as an emeritus member, as we did not see the document. >> with the benefit of hindsight after the 1998 investigation was completed by the department of public welfare and central country d. a. and jerry sandusky was not charged with any crime what should and state have done differently? >> there should have been additional follow-up. we know that. that is why we have done so much to put the kind of policies into place that we have.

we have secured facilities in new ways. we have changed the ways in which retired faculty and staff have access to our facilities. we have implemented background checking not only for our own faculty and staff but volunteers coming on campus for many reasons. we have strengthened our mandatory reporting laws, procedures related to the cleary act, certainly within our police services and investigative services we strengthen the all of those processes and procedures in the future, will make it very unlikely that this will ever happen again. >> in light of the transparency you promised will you be releasing a copy of the $6.5 million contract that authorized the group to do their

investigation? >> that is something that should be directed toward the share of the board. >> four penn state trustees were named to the record for having prior knowledge of the sandusky grand jury investigation dating back to spring of 2011 and doing nothing about it. only one of these trustees has resigned. whar john fetterman and edward head holding their trusty position? >> that is a question that would be best directed to them but i would have to say the board has made significant changes over the course of the past year. i mentioned many of the changes they have made to their structure. i would also say the oversight has increased dramatically and

there is new leadership and i have regular contract virtually on a daily basis with of the leadership of the board. other members of the board feel very much empowered to reach into the ranks of my senior staff to request information and raise issues. it is a very different kind of oversight that will serve the university very well. >> the pitfalls of the previous administration and the board of trustees were due to poor decisions and accountability between the office of the president and leaders of the board. how have the freeh recommendations improved that and what processes have helped to insure both groups of leaders are fully aware of what each is doing? >> i think i addressed much of that in my last response but it has been a year of much more

frequent meetings, much enhanced interactions. the board is fully aware and will brief of any major issues that are taking place at the university. i would also say that one of the objectives in my administration has been to create more interaction among my senior leadership team so that whenever any issues come before the university had come around our table, discussing them at the broad group of 18 members who make up part -- my president's council. >> the freeh report concluded joe paterno and gary shall intentionally covered up their knowledge of sandusky's child abuse to protect reputation of the pens state football program. on what grounds the think louis freeh reach this conclusion and you think it is fair and

accurate? >> that is a question that is best directed to louis freeh and certainly the legal process that is going on is continuing and the investigation that is continuing will hopefully lead to some conclusions with respect to that question. >> did the university consult with legal counsel to determine how accepting the freeh conclusion might be looked on as admission of guilt and expose the university to greater liability in civil suits against the university? >> the university certainly thought about that. of course the freeh report was commissioned by the board of trustees. and the board of trustees accepted that report. i would say that doesn't necessarily mean members of the board of trustees agree with

every aspect of the report, but we certainly agree with the recommendations of the report and are moving ahead swiftly to implement those recommendations. >> who first suggested the use of the death penalty as inappropriate penalty handed down by the n.c.a.a.? >> mark everett? >> what could have been recovered in an investigation of penn state that would have netted a worse result than the current sanctions? >> i don't know what kinds of other issues there may have been, but i can't imagine a worse outcome than the death sentence, the death penalty or multiple years of that. you have to understand the death

penalty would have not only in erased the tremendous source of revenue that helps to support collegiate programs but years of continuing costs given all the contracts and commitments related to football. loss of television revenue would be very substantial as well. the impact on the local community which over the course of seven games are absolutely huge in a small community like ours and certainly sanctions we accepted an unprecedented and severe as they were, still continued to play. i have to say how proud i am of our football players.

these young men have stuck with us, for the most part over 90% of them, stayed with coach o'brien and the staff and they played their hearts out during befall and they will continue to. they really acted like the true champions that they are. don't care what their one loss record is, they are champions as far as i am concerned and they reflect how we will get through this process. we will come out stronger in the end. >> who proposed the final version of the sanctions? penn state or the n.c.a.a.? >> we had little that we were able to negotiate if you will, in terms of the n.c.a.a. sanctions. we were not in a negotiating position and the n.c.a.a. had

made that very clear to us. >> did you brief the trustees about the negotiations? >> yes. i brought the executive committee of the board into the loop early on that week and kept them informed through the process including sunday night at the latest before i put pen to paper to sign it. >> what role could the legacy of joe paterno play and penn state future? could his legacy be restored? >> this is certainly an issue that has great importance for the university to the community. joe paterno was a larger-than-life figure for much of his 61 years at penn state and certainly left an important

legacy for the univer for the u. certainly in making decisions that i did, i thought it was most appropriate that we leave the joe paterno name on the library given the contributions to education, many contributions to education that coach paterno and his family have made over the years. i think that is a very fitting tribute to have that name get on the library. as to how the university would entertain other ideas, i think that is something that we will have to give some time. there are lots of differing opinions about this and i hope at some point we will be able to address that with a sense of

unity and reflection. >> how do you think alumni have reacted to the steps the university have taken to repair and limit damage to the image and reputation of their alma mater? >> there are a lot of different thoughts out there. it clearly has been difficult to move the positive forward when we have had what seems like a continuing stream of bad news that has come out over the course of the last year, but we are moving forward with the help of individuals such as i introduced today and we need to continue to do that. we need to talk about the wonderful tremendously positive things that are happening at

penn state day in and day out because our mission has not changed one iota over the last year. we are still about teaching research, and service. we are the greater educational institution we were a year ago. we're still a place that corporate america most likes to come to hire graduates. all of these things are there and still in place. we can't forget that even as we deal with some of the issues that continue to arise. >> what was the reaction on campus to spaniard's charges? >> i had relatively few opportunities to interact with individuals during the day, kind

of an informal discussion atmosphere. i am sure there was emotion, a lot of concern. dr. span year was well-regarded among the student body, the faculty. we will have a better opportunity to assess that over the next few days and the weeks ahead. >> given the new charges are you being investigated for any role in the sandusky scandal? >> not that i am aware of. >> how are settlement negotiations going and why has the university not been forthcoming about how much it is paying on the settlement negotiators? >> kenneth feinberg and mike rosen and i were brought on really as intermediaries. they don't represent the

university. they don't represent victims. they are simply there to try to engage in discussion and hopefully develop a process that the university, insurance carriers, and the plaintiffs can get together around. ideally we would like to settle all of the cases if it were possible, but even some number of them if we could settle them without taking the victims through a litigation process, that would be preferable for everyone, i believe. they will continue to try to move this process forward over the next few weeks, over the next few months and hopefully it will help us to bring some resolution to the matter in a timely and just manner. >> what is the status of the

university's fight with its insurers, pennsylvania manufacturing insurance co. of general liability coverage? >> the issue there really is about whether they are going to provide coverage but let me first give you a little background. like other organizations of our size and scope like pierre universities we have multiple stacks of coverage. the mayor from -- that you are referring to -- is simply the first layer in coverage we have had and maintained for six years. none of these subsequent coverages are dependent on what happened with that later. >> what would be the university response if they're found not guilty of the charges in danger in the welfare of children and failed to report child abuse? isn't that what the sanctions

are largely based on? >> we have to wait and see how all of this turns out. i am not going to speculate on those kinds of what if situations at this point. >> just a couple more minutes. a few announcements to make. before we get to our last question. i would like to remind you of our upcoming luncheons on november 12th. we have roger doll 3, lead singer of the who discussing the ball 3,000 teen and young adult cancer program. november 16th, admiral jonathan green, chief of naval operations will be speaking. had like to present our guests with a traditional coffee mug. makes all those beverages taste better. lastly i would like to ask what is your one major goal you would like to accomplish before you leave your role in two years?

>> my major goal is to set the stage for my successor so that she or he can come in and really take the reins of this great university that is penn state, continue to drive for word to do wonderful things, and my goal is to make that happen and continue to serve faculty, staff, students and alumni in the best possible way i can during the time i have left. >> how about a round of applause for our speaker? [applause] >> thank you for coming. i would also like to thank the national press club staff including its journalism institute and broadcaster for organizing today's event.